Senate Democrats voted unanimously to shut down the Senate trial of President Joe Biden’s impeached homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas.
The first vote of 51 Democrats to 48 Republicans, with one non-voting Republican senator, was reported at 3:18 p.m. on Wednesday.
The vote, initiated by Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declared that the first article of impeachment was “unconstitutional” because the charges against Mayorkas did not rise to the impeachable level of “high crimes.”
The House’s articles of impeachment charged Mayorkas with “the willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law,” including Congress’s law that asylum seekers be detained until their legal claims are completed.
The vote was delayed while Republican senators proposed motions to extend the trial period.
Each proposal was defeated with a party line score of 51 to 49.
Immediately after the vote, Schumer proposed a vote to take down the second article of impeachment, which said that Mayorkas lied to Congress about border security or a “Breach of Public Trust.”
“It is a felony!” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said as he proposed a motion to delay the vote.
The Democrats passed their motion at 4:16 p.m., wiping out the second article of impeachment.
Republican legislators say the Democrats want to minimize public recognition of the damage caused by Mayorkas’s refusal to enforce the nation’s popular and beneficial immigration laws. “The evidence is devastating,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Fox News. “It will gut them like a fish.”
Mayorkas has repeatedly explained that he supports more migration because of his migrant parents, his sympathy for migrants, and his support for “equity” between Americans and foreigners.
He also justifies his welcome for migrants by saying his priorities are above the law and claiming that the “needs” of U.S. business are paramount — regardless of the cost to ordinary Americans, the impact on U.S. children, or Americans’ rational opposition.